Vitamin K Foods

Vitamin K Foods

Vitamin K Foods have many sources. Green leafy vegetables such as kale, spinach, mustard
and turnip greens, are excellent sources of Vitamin K. Brussel sprouts, broccoli, and cabbage
are also on the list of green leafy vegetables that provide K. Other vegetables that provide
vitamin K are

Celery

Green Beans

Cauliflower

Soybeans

Tomato

Green Peas

Carrots

Summer Squash

Kidney Beans

Some foods that are not vegetables that provide Vitamin K are:

Cranberries

Pumpkin Seeds (raw)

Cow’s Milk

Pears

Strawberries

Papaya

Avocados

These are just some of the foods that contain vitamin K there are some other you will
find too.

Why Vitamin K is important to your health?

Vitamin K is best known for helping the blood to clot. Our blood clots when we get a cut
therefore we lose less blood. If our blood did not clot we could easily bleed to death
from a fairly minor cut. Vitamin K makes it easier for the blood to clot but it also can
keep the blood from clotting too much. This means it is important to the blood regulating
the clotting process. People on blood thinners have to monitor their intake of Vitamin K.
It will impair the blood thinners in doing their jobs.

Another function for K is helping in the fight against osteoporosis. An estimated 44 million
Americans suffer from osteoporosis. It breaks down that for women 1 out of 2 come down
with osteoporosis and with the men it is 1 out of 4 come down with this. Vitamin K helps
the body retain more calcium, which in turn helps make the bones stronger. Vitamin K also
activates what is called osteocalcin, which just happens to be protein that is noncollagen based in the bones. This all helps to decrease the rate of osteoporosis that occurs in older individuals. Along with this less fractures such as hip fractures occur.

The leafy green vegetables that provide Vitamin K also provide calcium and boron, which are
also necessary for the health or your bones. As people age the amount of Vitamin K decreases
in the body. This makes it imperative to take Vitamin K supplements and eat a diet rich in
Vitamin K as we age. Many people tend to limit their dairy intake the older they get so the
amount of calcium consumed decreases.

Vitamin K also acts as an antioxidant. As an antioxidant it helps control the activity of
free radical. Free radicals can cause damage to the cells located near them. Vitamin K can
deactivate the free radicals and stop them from damaging any cells.

Certain health conditions have reported success in either treatment or prevention when using
Vitamin K. Some of the health conditions that see improvement are forms of cancer, bruising
easily, heart conditions as in heat attacks, osteopenia or osteoporosis, and strokes. There
are other conditions also that studies have been done on.